Needle plate for tufting machine



Aug, 27, 1968 R. T. CARD NEEDLE PLATE FOR TUF'TING MACHINE Filed March 17, 1967 ATTORNEY nited States 3,398,708 NEEDLE PLATE FOR TUFTING MACHINE Roy T. Card, Chattanooga, Tenn., assignor to Lewis Card & Co., Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn., a corporation of Tennessee Filed Mar. 17, 1967, Ser. No. 624,084 7 Claims. (Cl. 11279) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Background of the invention This invention relates to a needle plate for a tufting machine, and more particularly to a needle plate for a narrow gauge multiple needle tufting machine.

In a conventional multiple needle tufting machine the needle plate is provided with a plurality of uniformly spaced straight fingers extending from the edge of the plate in the direction of the fabric feed so that each finger extends between an adjacent pair of needles. These fingers are adapted to provide a support for the fabric in the path of the needles and are spaced to permit free reciprocation of the needles between the fingers. In a conventional multiple needle tufting machine, the needle plate fingers are uniformly spaced at the same gauge as the needles.

Where it is desired to produce fine or narrow gauge tufted fabric, such as a %2 inch gauge and smaller, it is customary to locate the needles in two transverse rows with the needles in one row being staggered longitudinally with respect to the needles in the other row. However, the gauge of the needles is limited by the needle plate fingers extending between them.

In US. Patent No. 2,976,829 issued to Roy T. Card, Mar. 28, 1961, the finer or more narrow needle gauge was permitted by the offset construction of the fingers on the needle plate. However because the inner portions of the fingers were alternately bent in opposite directions they could not be received in the uniformly spaced slots of a conventional needle plate. Consequently, additional slots had to be milled in the conventional needle plate, or a new needle plate with the appropriately spaced slots had to be substituted for the conventional needle plate.

The construction of the needle plate fingers in US. Patent No. 3,064,600 issued to Roy T. Card Nov. 20, 1962, overcame the above objections to the needle plate disclosed in Patent No. 2,976,829, by providing inner or shank portions of the needle plate fingers which could be mounted in the uniformly spaced milled slots of conventional needle plates. However, in the Card Patent No. 3,064,600, although each finger was identical in construction, one finger was required for each needle, and each finger had to be reversed for each subsequent position along the needle plate.

Summary of the invention It is therefore the purpose of this invention to provide a needle plate for a tufting machine having two sets of fingers of different construction. However, the fingers in each set will be of identical construction and symmetrical about their longitudinal axes, so that each finger may be mounted in the needle plate in either of two tent positions, apart about its longitudinal axis, without affecting its appearance or function. But most important, the total number of needle plate fingers required, including both the first and the second sets, will be only half the number of needles.

In order to carry out this invention, the first set of fingers will be short fingers adapted to extend between alternate pairs of needles in the first or proximal row, while the second set of fingers will have forked ends or tines adapted to project beyond the first set of fingers and between the needles in the second or remote row.

Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the invention, with portions broken away, and disclosing the needles in their lowermost position penetrating the fabric; and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the needle plate made in accordance with this invention, with the needles in cross-section.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring now to the drawings in more detail, FIG. 1 discloses a portion of a transverse needle bar 10 in a conventional multiple needle, narrow gauge, tuftin g machine, supporting a first, proximal, or front row of uniformly spaced needles 11, and a second, remote or rear row of uniformly spaced needles 12 offset longitudinally and preferably mid-way between the needles 11, to provide a uniform needle gauge. Each needle 11 may be provided with a loop hook 13, and each needle 12 may be provided with a loop hook 14, adapted to reciprocate in unison with the needles in order to form loops with yarn 15 carried thereby, in a well-known manner. The loop hooks 13 and 14 may be set in a reciprocable loop hook bar 16 in a conventional manner, as shown in FIG. 1.

A base fabric 17, a fragment of which is shown in FIG. 1, is fed beneath the needles 11 and 12, from the front toward the rear of the tufting machine, in the direction of the arrow, and above the loop hooks 13 and 14, by any conventional means, not shown. As the fabric 17 is fed into the path of the needles 11 and 12, the needles reciprocate through the base fabric 17 to form loops therein.

It is, of course, also within the scope of this invention to form cut-pile by providing cut-pile hooks instead of the loop hooks 13 and 14, and reversing the direction of the cut-pile hooks so that they point forward in the direction opposite the fabric feed.

In order to support the fabric 17 as it is fed beneath the needles 11 and 12, the needle plate 19 made in accordance with this invention is provided. The needle plate 19 incorporates a conventional fabric support member or plate 20 having longitudinal straight grooves 21 milled in the top sunface of the fabric support plate 20 in a conventional manner, and having a uniform spacing. However, the fabric support member 20 differs from needle plates in the prior art, by having only half as many grooves 21 with a uniform spacing equal to twice the needle gauge, instead of equal to the needle gauge.

Mounted in the grooves 21 of the support member 20, or by any other convenient mounting means, are a first set of short straight fingers 23 and a second set of longer, forked fingers 24 which alternate with the short fingers 23.

Each short finger 23 is preferably straight throughout its length to fit in its corresponding groove 21 and project longitudinally beyond the rear edge 25 of the support member 20 and between an adjacent pair of proximal needles 11. Each finger 23 terminates in a free end 26 between the first row of needles 11 and the second row of needles 12. Moreover, the short finger 23 is preferably mid-way between the adjacent pair of needles 11 and in longitudinal alignment with a remote needle 12.

Each forked finger 24 has a shank portion 28 adapted to be snugly fitted within its corresponding groove 21 and projecting longitudinally beyond the rear edge of plate 25 between a pair of adjacent proximal needles 11. Between the first and second rows of needles 11 and 12, the shank portion 28 joins or merges into the free forkedend portion of the finger 24, which comprises a pair of tines 29 and 30. The tines 29 and 30 are spaced apart sufficiently to receive one remote needle 12 between them, as the needle 12 reciprocates downwardly through the fabric 17. Tines 29 and 30 are also preferably equally spaced on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of the shank portion 28. The tines 29 and 30 may be connected to the shank portion 28 by any convenient means, such as the V-shaped diverging elements 31 and 32.

By uniformly and alternately spacing the first and second sets of fingers 23 and 24, having a gauge equal to twice the needle gauge, every needle 11 and 12 in each transverse row will be separated from every adjacent needle in the same row by one of the fingers 23 or 24, or by a portion of a finger. Thus, in the first or proximal row of needles 11, each needle 11 is separated from each adjacent needle 11 by either the short straight finger 23, or the shank portion 28 of the forked finger 24. In the second or remote row of needles 12, each needle 12 is separated from each adjacent needle 12 by one of the tines 29 or 30, by virtue of there being one forked finger 24- for every other needle 12. Although each short finger 23 extends only between a pair of proximal needles 11, nevertheless the shank portion 28 of the forked finger 24 separates one pair of proximal needles 11 from an adjacent pair of needles 11, while its tines 29 and 30 extend between all the remote needles 12. Thus, the unique construction of the forked finger 24 serves to separate two needles 11 in the proximal row and three needles 12 in the remote row. Therefore, as previously mentioned, the construction of the two sets of fingers 23 and 24 permits the construction of a needle plate having only half as many fingers as previously required.

Moreover, because of the symmetrical construction of each finger 23 and 24, it may be received in a corresponding slot or groove 21 in either of two positions rotated 180 about its longitudinal axis, without affecting its appearance or function. These two features, the 50% reduction in the number of fingers as well as the symmetrical construction of each finger about its longitudinal axis, considerably reduces the time and cost of assembling each needle plate 19, as well as reducing the number of fingers required in stock for replacement.

Since the conventional straight fingers normally used in conventional needle plates could be employed as the short fingers 23, then a manufacturer who already has such straight fingers on band, would only require the forked fingers 24. In this situation, the number of forked fingers required would be only 25% of the number of fingers previously employed in the conventional needle plate.

Although the tines 29 and 30 do not have to be absolutely straight, they are preferably straight in order to permit the passage of the tufted stitching formed by the needles 12, as the fabric 17 is fed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1.

By way of example of the approximate dimensions in the prefer-red form of the invention, in a multiple needle tufting machine having a needle gauge of 0.10 inch, the free end 26 of the short finger 23 may be about of an inch from the rear edge 25 of the support plate 20. The outer extremities of the tines 29 and 30 may be approximately of an inch from the rear edge 25. The spacing between adjacent tines 29 and 30 of a single forked finger 24 may be about 0.1250 inch, while the spacing between adjacent tines 30 and 29 of the adjacent forked fingers 24 may be approximately 0.2310 inch. In this example, it will be noted that the spacing of the adjacent tines 29 and 30 of the same forked fingers 24 is closer than the spacing of adjacent tines of adjacent forked fingers 24. This spacing is not too critical, so long as there is sufiicient room between adjacent tines 29 and 30 to permit each remote needle 12 carrying yarn 15 to freely reciprocate downward through the fabric 17.

It will be noted that this needle plate construction sacrifices the separation between some of the adjacent fingers 11 and 12 in opposite rows. However, because of the greater spacing between the rows 11 and 12 and because the yarn 15 is carried alongside each needle, there has been no sacrifice in speed, efiiciency or performance of the tufting machine because of the lack of finger elements between some of the adjacent needles in the adjacent transverse rows.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that vari ous changes may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a multiple needle tufting machine having first and second transverse rows of reciprocable needles longitudinally staggered and of uniform gauge, a needle plate comprising:

(a) a fabric support member,

(b) a forked finger comprising a shank portion and a forked portion projecting longitudinally from said support member,

(c) said shank portion projecting between a pair of needles in said first row,

(d) said forked portion having a pair of tines projecting from said shank portion beyond said second row and spaced apart on opposite sides of one needle in said second row.

2. The invention according to claim 1 in which said shank portion is longitudinally aligned with said one needle and said forked portion is symmetrical about the longitudinal axis of said shank portion.

3. The invention according to claim 1 in which said forked portion merges with said shank portion between said first and second rows.

4. The invention according to claim 1 further comprising a short finger projecting longitudinally from said support member between one needle of said pair and a third needle in said first row adjacent said one needle.

5. The invention according to claim 4 in which said short finger has a free end terminating between said first and second rows, and said short finger is in longitudinal alignment with a second needle in said second row adjacent said one needle.

6. The invention according to claim 4 in which said shank portion is spaced apart from said short finger a distance equal to twice said needle gauge.

7. The invention according to claim 4 further comprising a plurality of short fingers and a plurality of forked fingers projecting from said support member, a short finger being spaced between each adjacent pair of forked fingers on a uniform gauge equal to twice said needle gauge.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,976,829 3/1961 Card 112 79 3,064,600 11/1962 Card 112 79 3,324,812 6/1967 Smith 112 79 HERBERT F. ROSS, Primary Examiner. 

